Three guests check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 for himself.

Now that each of the guests has been given $1 back, each has paid $9, bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. If the guests originally handed over $30, what happened to the remaining $1?

Now, I have seen someone do this effect at an old magician's lecture - but for the life of me I can't remember who it was. Any help along those lines would be greatly appreciated!

Anyways, what I need is a method of false counting money in front of someone so that I overcount it. Then, when truly counting it, money would disappear along with the patter lines. I only know of one false count method that relies on a quick fold and palm to steal a bill, but it is hard to execute and lends to disposal problems. I would like to tap the resident experts here for other methods. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

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Posted by: Frank Yuen (Nov 18, 2012 06:59PM)

Daryl used to do this effect in his lectures. The walking the fingers count would be my recommendation. It's explained in one of the Art of Astonishment volumes.

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Posted by: Michael J (Nov 19, 2012 06:18AM)

Hi bobthemagicdoerguy

At the IBM British Ring Convention this year in Great Yarmouth, Nick Einhorn demoed this effect and it was excellent. The effect is called The Mysterious Puzzle of The Missing Dollar Bill.

Sorry can’t fine the effect on his web site but various magic sites sell the effect in book format at around £15.

Suggest you contact Nick for further details.

All the best

Michael

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Posted by: bobthemagicdoerguy (Nov 19, 2012 12:47PM)

Frank - Thanks for the info! Yes, I remember now it was Daryl I learned it from years ago.

Michael - I love Nick Einhorn. I'm very interested in seeing his presentation. Thanks for the advice.

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Posted by: John Long (Nov 20, 2012 03:50PM)

I've also seen an ad for Einhorn's method, but can't find it now. It apparently uses some gimmick. I given just a little thought to doing it with sleight of hand.

"I only know of one false count method that relies on a quick fold and palm to steal a bill, .."
That would seem to under count the money.

The count that I use is explained in Wilson's Hundy 500, and in Kap's Currency. I had one friend stick his face w/i 6" of the bills when I was doing it; he didn't see anything, and my method is not as good as what Wilson teaches (but easier for me)

I would like a reference for the counting method from AOA, I don't remember seeing it.

Also, if someone finds the link to Einhorn's product, please post it.

John

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Posted by: bobthemagicdoerguy (Nov 20, 2012 10:34PM)

Here's a cross post from where I asked this in the card forum, in case anyone thought of card sleights that were useful.

John: I just purchased the Einhorn effect. Its on his website at http://www.einhorn.co.uk/?q=shop called the Mysterious Puzzle of the Missing Dollar Bill as a downloadable e-book.

If you want the hard copy, I found one at Vanishing Magic: http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic/close-up-magic/the-mysterious-puzzle-of-the-missing-dollar-bill/

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Posted by: John Long (Nov 21, 2012 09:33AM)

Bob

Thanks for the link, I don't know why I didn't see it the other day. Still, it is rather "pricey" for a single effect.

John

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Posted by: Stevie Tricker (Nov 25, 2012 10:00AM)

On James Chadier's DVD the French Connection there is a technique called "the rhythm count" which works with both bills and cards.

The trick on the DVD that demos it consists of him dealing 4 bills straight into someone's hand, they make a fist so that he cant get at them, he invisibly steals one taking it out of his jacket pocket and when they count what’s in their hand there is one bill missing.

As far as I can tell it'll only work if all the bills are the same value so I'm not sure if its ideal for your needs but it does allow the count to be done very openly right under their nose.

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Posted by: bobthemagicdoerguy (Nov 25, 2012 03:05PM)

This one is actually nearly exactly what I am looking for - the effect is to have dollar bills go missing with no apparent action other than counting them twice. Once it is there, once it is gone. Being able to do it in the spectator's hands is intriguing... I'll add it to my list. Thanks!

By the way, I found another thread discussing this down in the "puzzles" section, and someone has worked it into a trick already:

I'm working on expanding it into a routine. There is another riddle where money mysteriously appears, so I was hoping I could move to that, then move into a bill to impossible location scenario to demonstrate that money tends to move around when nobody is watching, and that would explain where the missing dollar goes. I was going to end by combining Joshua Jay's Cornered with Max Krause's serial killer effects to show that it is the exact same bill that is moving around.

One issue I am struggling with is that I want to know if it is a good thing to move into another effect (Where'd the dollar go? Ah, here it is!), or just leave it a mystery. Nick Einhorn himself said in his effect that:

"Whilst putting this routine together I experimented with a â€˜magical endingâ€™ by using a Himber wallet and having the â€˜missingâ€™ dollar reappear in the previously shown empty wallet, however I found in performance that it confused matters and on balance I prefer to have the missing dollar remain a mystery. You may however like to play with this idea and see if you can make it work for you."

Now, I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but I am really wondering if he is onto something here. Is it more mysterious to just have it disappear and end there? I was hoping to use this effect as an intro to a whole mysterious dollar routine, and I'm curious how "explaining" the missing dollar magically would destroy the effect.

For what it is worth, the appearing dollar riddle that I was going to build as phase two goes like this:

See, what the three diners didn't know was that the waiter also had another table where only 2 people were dining. Their bill came to $20, and each paid $10. However, they also got the lunchtime discount and should have only paid $15. So the waiter brings the men back their $5. Well, they were so impressed by the waiter's honesty, and reasoned that since $5 can't be split evenly 2 ways (no coins) that they each kept $1 and gave the remaining $3 as a tip to the waiter. So each man paid $10, and got $1 back, for a total of $18 (9x2). Add to that the $3 tip the waiter kept, and the total is $21. So the first three guys actually just helped the second two guys give the waiter a tip.

(The original puzzle was men in a hotel, but due to inflation I think this restaurant version works better). How this would work in the routine is that spectators have just seen me lose a dollar three times in a row. A dollar goes missing, so I replace it with another dollar from my wallet, and again and again. I still end up with only $29. Now, I put the $10 away (ditching the gaffed bills I used in the first phase) to demonstrate that the money is actually coming back.

That was the original plan, anyway. What do the experts here think about diluting the mystery of the missing dollar by moving into this second puzzle?

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Posted by: John Long (Nov 26, 2012 08:09PM)

[quote]
On 2012-11-25 11:00, Stevie Tricker wrote:
On James Chadier's DVD the French Connection there is a technique called "the rhythm count" which works with both bills and cards.

The trick on the DVD that demos it consists of him dealing 4 bills straight into someone's hand, they make a fist so that he cant get at them, he invisibly steals one taking it out of his jacket pocket and when they count what’s in their hand there is one bill missing.

As far as I can tell it'll only work if all the bills are the same value so I'm not sure if its ideal for your needs but it does allow the count to be done very openly right under their nose.
[/quote]

This sounds similar, in effect/plot, to Lynn's Seven Penny Trick (in Bobo). Is the rhythm count described anywhere else?

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Posted by: Stevie Tricker (Nov 28, 2012 04:46PM)

That DVD is just where I happened to come across the move but I don't think that its new, there's a couple of things on there described as practical applications of underground moves.

I've been read the following thread but cant quite work out if we're all talking the same false count;

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=122488&forum=2

Its Vinny's comment about it mimicking showing 4 diffident card that's giving me my doubts because I doubt see how that's possible with the count I'm referring to.

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Posted by: John Long (Feb 4, 2019 02:09PM)

[quote]On Nov 18, 2012, Frank Yuen wrote:
Daryl used to do this effect in his lectures. The walking the fingers count would be my recommendation. It's explained in one of the Art of Astonishment volumes. [/quote]

Can anybody tell me what is the name of the effect in AOA that uses this method?

Thanks; John

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Posted by: John Long (Apr 6, 2019 09:53PM)

Padre:

Thanks. That video clip showed up on a different thread (and was announced that it would be appearing on Lybrary; which it now is).

To my eyes, it looks a lot like the false count in Hundy 500, or in Kap's Currency - both of which I have, and see that it could be used for the riddle of the missing dollar.

If any one is familiar with the above 2 and the video link given, I would be interested to hear if there are substantial difference between them.